Research firm Gartner today released its preliminary personal computer shipment data for the fourth quarter of 2012, showing a mixed market for manufacturers. Overall, Gartner saw a 2.1% year-over-year decline in PC sales in the United States, compared to a 4.9% decline on a global basis.

In the United States, Apple maintained its third-place ranking with 12.3% of the market on a unit sales increase of 5.4% over the year-ago quarter. Apple's growth was outpaced by leader HP at 12.6% and fourth-place Lenovo at 9.7%, but Lenovo remains well behind Apple at 8.4% of the U.S. market. Apple and the other gainers were, however, more than offset by steep losses at Dell and Acer, leading to overall contraction of the PC market in the U.S.

Apple's U.S. Market Share Trend: 1Q06-4Q12 (Gartner)

As usual, Gartner did not cover Apple's worldwide market share for the quarter, as the company does not rank among the top five vendors on a worldwide basis.

IDC has also released its estimates of PC sales for the quarter, offering an even bleaker view of the market with its calculations of 6.4% contraction in the global market and a 4.5% decline in the United States. Apple in particular took a hit in IDC's estimates relative to Gartner's numbers, with IDC projecting that Apple's sales actually shrank by 0.2% year-over-year. Still, given the overall market decline in the U.S., IDC saw Apple's share of the market rise from 10.9% to 11.4%.

Wow, this thread opens on quick the ******** already. Are you really surprised, what with enterprise level contracts for notebooks and desktops that HP and Dell would outsell Apple, when they've been at #1 and #2 for years now ?

As for the actual numbers, I'm surprised the current tablet craze didn't eat more into this segment. The market is mature and lets face, as technology advances, the actual niches that do require more and more computing power are getting smaller and rarer. Most people have attained a level of computing power to fill their needs quite a while ago, and upgrades are mostly done to replace faulty old hardware or out of a "want" consumerism basis.

__________________"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."
-- Pericles

Wow, this thread opens on quick the ******** already. Are you really surprised, what with enterprise level contracts for notebooks and desktops that HP and Dell would outsell Apple, when they've been at #1 and #2 for years now ?

As for the actual numbers, I'm surprised the current tablet craze didn't eat more into this segment. The market is mature and lets face, as technology advances, the actual niches that do require more and more computing power are getting smaller and rarer. Most people have attained a level of computing power to fill their needs quite a while ago, and upgrades are mostly done to replace faulty old hardware or out of a "want" consumerism basis.

I think you must have been actively looking for '********' to comment on, because there didn't actually seem to be any in that post. Dell and HP, in fact, make virtually nothing from their PC sales because they got involved in the PC price wars, where vendors competed for market share based solely on price. In the beginning that competition was good, but eventually the vendors had to cut into quality to keep pricing lower, and the market *still* hasn't really recovered from that.

The fact is that both Dell and HP outsell Apple (in both units and revenue), but they're getting *murdered* by the unbelievably low margins on the typical systems they sell. Apple avoided the race to no profits that the rest of the PC industry 'competed' in over the last two decades or so. The lowest-end systems sold by Apple are mid-range system by the standards of most OEMs, including Dell and HP, and carry similar profit margins to those systems. Apple doesn't *do* the 'low-end' where there are no profit margins though.

In the mid-range and upper end, there is more room for both quality and profits because not so many corners need to be cut to squeeze prices down. The result of cutting corners and 'going cheap' in order to compete solely on price has resulted in *most* Windows PC vendors gaining a reputation for poor quality over the years, at the very least in their 'consumer' lines.

Profitability in the Windows PC market has been so poor that HP recently looked at unloading their PC division because it was so unprofitable. Dell has had financial issues related to poor profitability in the recent past as well, though I don't recall seeing anything in the past few years, so they may have gotten things under control.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by malman89

Gotta stick to the U.S. numbers because they fall off when you consider worldwide numbers, which really show how successful Lenovo and ASUS have been.

I think you must have been actively looking for '********' to comment on,

No sorry, trying to dismiss market share numbers with "profit" is the argument of someone looking to justify Apple's position in some way. It's not really the topic and no one rational would care enough that Apple is #3 to try and attack HP and Dell's #1 spot.

No one but shareholders care about profits. Profits are essentially the dollars a company managed to charge extra for to buyers and stuff their money with. If you ask me, the less profits the better I'm off.

__________________"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."
-- Pericles

No sorry, trying to dismiss market share numbers with "profit" is the argument of someone looking to justify Apple's position in some way. It's not really the topic and no one rational would care enough that Apple is #3 to try and attack HP and Dell's #1 spot.

No one but shareholders care about profits. Profits are essentially the dollars a company managed to charge extra for to buyers and stuff their money with. If you ask me, the less profits the better I'm off.

And yet, in a later post, you complain about the uber-low-cost systems you have to use at work where they are chosen purely by pricing.

When companies have gotten a product's price so low that they no longer make a sustainable profit, they have long since squeezed all the quality out of that product.

Dell and HP sell a *lot* more units than Apple, but they've both been in danger of going bankrupt more recently than Apple, simply because their 'typical' unit does virtually nothing for their bottom line.

No sorry, trying to dismiss market share numbers with "profit" is the argument of someone looking to justify Apple's position in some way. It's not really the topic and no one rational would care enough that Apple is #3 to try and attack HP and Dell's #1 spot.

If that's all you see from the chart, you're missing the picture.

If you look in the long run, Apple's market share has more than doubled in the past 6 years. Achieving that steady and consistent growth in market share while maintaining a healthy gross margin makes Apple the envy of the entire industry.

Quote:

No one but shareholders care about profits.

Nonsense. Anyone who cares about the long-term viability of a company cares about the profits. Ringling Brothers may put more individuals through the door, but Cirque du Soleil is doing somersaults around them in the bottom line.

I think you must have been actively looking for '********' to comment on, because there didn't actually seem to be any in that post.

I disagree. I think it's pretty obvious the tone of the post. Not to mention - what does profit margin have to do with the topic. Oh I know it's related. But the manner in which the OP commented - it wasn't a discussion point. It was what everyone knows it was. A knock on HP and Dell for not being Apple.

I disagree. I think it's pretty obvious the tone of the post. Not to mention - what does profit margin have to do with the topic. Oh I know it's related. But the manner in which the OP commented - it wasn't a discussion point. It was what everyone knows it was. A knock on HP and Dell for not being Apple.

Best post I've read in a while.

It's funny how many threads on here are full of posters indirectly bragging about Apple ripping them off!

__________________How could so pitiful a wretch throw so vast a shadow?

They also show how badly Dell is doing and what a disaster the last year has been for Acer. And these numbers show nothing at all about what Apple is doing world wide.

Probably not as well as you'd think. As far as the PC market is concerned, Apple has always had a much stronger following in the US than it is elsewhere. They have their following, but it's pretty small compared to what it is here in the states.

As for DELL... they've been a sinking ship in recent years. They've had declining sales year-over-year for a while now. CEO Michael Dell should do the right thing, just close shop, sell the remaining assets of the company and give it back to the shareholders.

I've owned 6 desktop Macs and 2 laptops since 91... half were 2nd hand... So Apple hasn't made that much on new sales from me...

Also have purchased 3 iPhones, but only 1 new.

But Apple _did_ benefit from you. If you hadn't bought these used computers and phones, the seller wouldn't have had the money to buy new devices, but they would have kept using them. So Apple wouldn't have sold new devices to them.

(The seller might have had enough money to buy a new device, but it might not have been worth it. If I sell a used iPad 3 for $399 and buy an iPad 4 for $499, it costs me $100 to upgrade from iPad 3 to iPad 4. If I buy an iPad 4 for $499, and put the iPad 3 into a drawer, never to use it again, the upgrade costs $499. Even though I have the money, it's not worth it).

Quote:

Originally Posted by apple-win

Same price. No Bootcamp, either OS X or Windows. If Windows Mac is available, I would ask IS department to order one for me

Ask them if your company has a company license for Windows. Where I work, I could install Windows for free (legally), and quite a few Windows-only users are using Macs. Mostly MBAs.

I find it funny how Apple fans like to give Apple their money. Its like they know they are being over charged but don't mind

overcharged how? Macbooks have the best trackpads, great clean sleek designs, durable and great quality. Apple also has great customer support in the sense that you dont have to send your laptop away for AT LEAST 2 weeks to fix it if anything's wrong.

If you're used to great things please dont comment about them.

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Quote:

Originally Posted by samcraig

Agreed -

You can most certainly hear the fans on my MacBook Pro's. LOUDLY.

have to agree w this. Even when Im doing nothing I can still hear the slight buzz. Nothing major but I was expecting dead silence.

overcharged how? Macbooks have the best trackpads, great clean sleek designs, durable and great quality. Apple also has great customer support in the sense that you dont have to send your laptop away for AT LEAST 2 weeks to fix it if anything's wrong.

If you're used to great things please dont comment about them.

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have to agree w this. Even when Im doing nothing I can still hear the slight buzz. Nothing major but I was expecting dead silence.

Apple quality has gone down a lot, all my old macs g4 tower, mac mini g4, performa 600 are all still going fine. I dont buy Apple products anymore but my friends are always having faults with their iphones and macbooks. Faulty dvd drives, hard disks and power supply problems seem to happen a lot.